Women’s sport: If we build it, they will come
Nielsen’s Monique Perry and Kayla Ramiscal crunch some data and test the assumption that ‘the audience just isn’t there’ for women’s sport.
Today, the ‘value’ of a sport is primarily based on TV viewership and attendance. For women’s sport, it is widely assumed that ‘the attendance and viewing is just not there.’ While these traditional yardsticks are an important trading currency, our research shows that women’s sport has broader engagement, influence and value.
Top-level traditional metrics do not favour women’s sports: women’s sport makes up just 10% of live sports broadcasts, and with a unique broadcast reach across the keys sports of 5 million people, it represents just 36% of the audience of men’s sport (13.8 million).
But women’s sport is growing and this is an indicator of future success. There are now seven professional women’s sports leagues, five of which have been established in the past five years. As popularity continues to increase, it’s inevitable that both brands and rights holders have questions about audience, engagement, opportunities and return-on-investment attached to women’s sport.
Could someone supply the numbers on who is watching the sport. Im interested to know how many women are watching compared to men’s sport.
Monique & Kayla, how do you think that the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships at Torun in Poland this March will rate?
If Fox Sports is broadcasting it I’ll be watching it.